Newmarket Streetscape Master Plan: Leveraging Investment

NRU
Nov. 2, 2016
Andrew Cohrs

With nearly all its population growth projected to occur along Yonge Street and Davis Drive, Newmarket has turned its attention to public realm conditions along these corridors through a new Streetscape Master Plan. Seeking to leverage the transit investment committed to these corridors, funding sources for the improvements and their ongoing maintenance is still a matter of discussion for both the town and region.

“It goes back to the start of the development of the urban centre and we were seeing the investment being put in by Metrolinx and Viva... We saw how that was going to transform part of the corridors and we saw an opportunity to extend that,” Newmarket planning assistant director Jason Unger told NRU.

Seeking to piggyback public realm improvements on the VivaNext rapid transit investments for Davis Drive and Yonge Street, Unger said the plan establishes a high standard of urban design and streetscape. Planned improvements include wider sidewalks, cycle tracks, landscaped medians, public art, street furniture, planters and trees, enhanced lighting and barrier-free access, which all follow a cohesive theme and identity.

“The plan is about right sizing the streets... building complete streets. It’s for the cars, the buses, the pedestrians, the cyclists and it’s got placemaking aspects to it as well... We see it as setting expectations and providing a framework and design direction for development,” said Unger.

Since 2006, York Region has partnered with its local municipalities to share the cost of enhancing streetscapes throughout the region.

“We are trying to encourage a higher level of streetscaping and the way we can achieve that is through partnerships with local municipalities and the private sector, because as a regional government it is not fi nancially feasible to carry out an enhanced level of streetscaping [alone],” York Region streetscape program manager Carmen Hui told NRU.

While there is agreement that the costs will be shared between the town and the region, neither knows where its share of funding will come from. Cost estimates to implement the total streetscape vision are in the order of $41.5-million.

Currently, only the Yonge Street North portion of the streetscaping plan is included in the region’s 10-year capital  program with a committed $4.9-million. However, this portion of the improvements is estimated to cost $13.1-million, leaving an $8.2-million gap to be cost shared on a 50/50 basis with Newmarket. An additional $1-million a year is allocated for region-wide improvements.

“[It] begs the question: ‘How are you going to come up with $4-million [approximate regional share of funding gap for north portion of Yonge] when you only have $1-million [for the whole region]...’ It will be a huge challenge... but there has been a lot of good momentum with the VivaNext project and I think it only makes sense that we keep that momentum going... It’s an excellent opportunity for us to do it once and do it right,” said Hui.

Unger outlined potential ways for the town to make up the budgetary shortfall.

“There are opportunities through development charges, section 37 bonusing, community improvement plans, special development area charges, tax increment financing and lots of different ways to work with the region and development community to fund this...We’ve got a little bit of time to think about [what we want to do].”

Another implementation detail that needs to be sorted out is ongoing maintenance. Unger explained that responsibility will eventually lie with the region.

“Through the region’s adoption of the Transportation Master Plan update [earlier this year], the idea is the region will take over maintenance.” However, there is no clear direction yet with respect to a transfer of jurisdiction.

“At this time we don’t have a clear answer [about transferring jurisdiction] and until that clear answer is obtained, the town should assume that any enhanced streetscape of this nature will still be [its] financial responsibility to maintain,” said Hui.

She suggests that a conversation will be needed about the realities of maintaining more complicated streetscapes. “For the enhanced streetscapes... it gets a little trickier. In our current situation with our operations we do not have the resources or trained staff to take on a higher level of urban streetscape maintenance. It takes a lot more eff ort, expertise and finesse to maintain an urban streetscape.”

On Monday, Newmarket committee of the whole recommended council approve the Streetscape Master Plan prepared for the town and region by the IBI Group. The master plan will be considered by the regional committee of the whole November 3 and by regional council on November 17.